Tribalfootball.com's tactics expert Connor Holden pulls apart Arsenal's dramatic late victory over Premier League title holders Manchester City and how the tactics of both managers almost canceled eachtother out...
In a very cagey affair at the Emirates, Arsenal managed to prevail, beating City with a late goal from Gabriel Martinelli - a deflected strike from the edge of the 18 yard box.
But this game looked to be petering out to a stalemate end, and in this tactical review, we are going to discuss what both teams did to nullify the other, and why this game played out the way it did.
ARSENAL'S NARROW DEFENSIVE SHAPE AND TACTICAL BUILD-UP CHANGE
In this game, Arsenal looked to defend narrow by bringing their wingers (in this instance Gabriel Jesus and Leandro Trossard) infield to block the central passing lanes into the City forwards. This made a 4-5-1 out of possession, with the main aim of forcing City into wide areas.
Arsenal were looking to overload the central areas and make it hard for City to make fast interchanges in central zones, they wanted City to play the ball into wide areas where Arsenal could use the byline as an extra defender and push City into safer areas to then pressure them.
This was Mikel Arteta's plan to trap City, by setting pressing patterns for them to go into wide areas where Arsenal could then press them to recover the ball without leaving themselves open in central areas. This was a cautious approach to keep things tight whilst still recovering the ball and creating transition attacks when possible.
Another change Arsenal made tactically was their decision to build up in a 4-2 structure, keeping their fullbacks wide and having a double pivot midfield, as opposed to their usual structure of 3-2 in build up, using Oleks Zinchenko as an inverted fullback.
This again came down to the cagey approach of Arsenal for this game, and the risk management. In the 3-2 build up, Zinchenko inverts which means he is leaving his left back area unattended. This means when the ball is turned over, there is a big gap in that left channel for City to attack, and this leaves Arsenal in scramble mode defensively.
By building in a 4-2, it means the players are occupying their natural positions on the pitch, and if the ball turns over they are in their defensive set up already, giving more stability to defend in transition.
CITY'S NARROW NATURE AND FORCING LONG BALLS
Despite the space Arsenal were giving City in wide areas, Pep Guardiola's side seemed persistent to play narrow and centrally, with the likes of Phil Foden and Julian Alvarez playing extremely narrow and close to Erling Haaland.
City continued to play through central zones using Bernardo Silva, Rico Lewis and Mateo Kovacic to try and progress the ball into the narrow trio of Phil Foden, Erling Haaland and Julian Alvarez. However this was not working, and this saw City's main attacking threat become Josko Gvardiol overlapping on the left hand side.
This created a fair few chances, but the nature of Gvardiol being a central defender playing at left back in Pep's system, his final ball wasn't the best on those occasions. But City persisted to play this way, and only made the change to bring a direct winger in the shape of Jermey Doku on in the 70th minute.
City were even looking to press high up in a narrow shape, with Lewis and Kovacic pushing beyond Bernardo Silva to attach themselves to the double pivot of Declan Rice and Jorginho.
Lewis and Kovacic pressed really high up, stopping the two pivot players receiving the ball and turning in midfield. Instead City looked to force Arsenal to go long, and win their duels that way to regain possession. This had worked really well throughout the game as a defensive strategy, however one long ball at the end undid all the defensive hard work, when Havertz knocked the ball down for Martinelli to fire home.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, both teams set up with narrow and cagey approaches to counteract the other team, this showed throughout the game as both teams struggled in their attacking passages of play and clearly stuck to their defensive strategies to make life hard for the other.
The game was decided by one moment, which will massively benefit Arsenal going forward, showing their ability to win a game that looked to be fading away, the hallmark of true title winners.
